1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a waste toner collecting device for collecting a toner remaining on the surface of an image carrier or an intermediate transfer body. The invention also relates to an image forming apparatus loaded with this waste toner collecting device.
2. Description of Related Arts
In an image forming apparatus of an electrophotographic type, widely used is a transfer method of forming a transfer region with a photoconductive drum as an image carrier and a transfer roller as a transfer member in contact or in proximity with each other, inserting paper through this section, and transferring onto the paper a toner image formed on the surface of the photoconductive drum. With such a transfer method, after the toner image transfer onto the paper, a slight amount of toner may remain on the surface of the photoconductive drum without being transferred to the paper. This toner remaining on the surface of the photoconductive drum impedes the next new image formation, and thus requires cleaning by a cleaner.
Moreover, in an image forming apparatus primarily transferring a toner image formed on the surface of a photoconductive drum onto an intermediate transfer body and then secondarily transferring the toner image transferred on the surface of the intermediate transfer body onto paper, a slight amount of toner may also remain on the surface of the intermediate transfer body without being transferring to the paper. This toner remaining on the surface of the intermediate transfer body also requires cleaning by a cleaner.
A waste toner collected by the cleaner is conveyed into a pipe by a conveyance member such as a screw and collected by a waste toner collecting device. The waste toner collecting device includes a waste toner collecting container which introduces and stores a waste toner. One example of such a waste toner collecting container can be observed in Japanese Patent No. 3451076.
This conventional waste toner collecting container is typically formed of synthetic resin such as ABS resin. Therefore, increasing the capacity of the waste toner collecting container for the purpose of storing a larger amount of waste toner brings about problems such as poor portability and needs for ensuring a wide space for storage.
Thus, one example of waste toner collecting devices suggested to solve the problems described above can be observed in JP-A-H3-182789 as a waste toner storage device for an image forming apparatus. This waste toner storage device for an image forming apparatus includes a stretchable bag as a waste toner collecting container.
Since this conventional waste toner storage device includes the stretchable bag, it is convenient to carry and can be folded or rounded to take up a smallest possible storage space. However, with this configuration, every time the bag is filled with a waste toner, the bag itself needs to be removed from a frame of the waste toner storage device, which is very inconvenient. Moreover, in order to prevent accidental breakage of the bag while it is stored, a container or the like for protecting the bag needs to be prepared separately.
To efficiently store a waste toner into the bag, the bag stored in a folded or rounded manner needs to be spread in a preferable form at an initial stage. In this regard, with the configuration described in Patent Document 2, there is no specifically defined way of spreading the bag, thus resulting in risk of insufficient spreading, which may bend or twist the bag. Therefore, the bag may no longer be able to store a larger amount of waste toner. As a result, the bag replacement rate declines, which may lead to a risk of very high running costs and also possibility of a problem that the waste toner overflows from an inlet port of the bag.